GR80s Home of the Slow Set @ Club Nassau - 13 January 2012

Preview 27 January 2009

GR80s Home of the Slow Set "Ping-pong and a slowset, what more could you ask for?" This was my editor Mr. Christensen's pitch as he requested I make my way to that most notorious of dens Club Nassau and spend my Saturday night therein. The ping-pong sadly eluded us but the home of the slowset more than made up for that.

Arriving at a place like Club Nassau has the potential to be a little intimidating when one is not familiar with such venues and scenes. Not knowing what to expect and therefore not knowing how to dress I don my specs as I approach the entrance and open my Harrington in an effort to appear in some way...professional, respectable, less skinhead thuggish? It seems to work and after a moment, where we are obliged to step back and allow a taxi load of regulars dressed in what one expects are recession-busting satin dresses, towering open-toe stilettos, tango tans and the indispensable ubiquitous clutch handbag, we are admitted entry after the bouncer eyeballs our scruffy selves. We descend the steps of hope as the echoes of Madonna's True Blue filters up the stairway. Entering the club is a very strange experience - prepare to be presented with a bizarre assortment of characters that make up Club Nassau's clientele. The home of the slowset is renowned for being a middle-aged meat-market, and that's pretty much exactly what it is. Punters are made up of a predatory crowd searching for a soul mate or a shag, ranging in age from early thirties to sixties. The gentlemen appear to be from the farthest flung towns of the Irish countryside, this I guess from the shirts and the pints of cider. The ladies are predominantly Dublin city born and bred and buttered, and are generally an attractive, well-turned out bunch; there are a few hen parties thrown in for good measure too. The circular dancefloor is surrounded by a raised perimeter where clusters of men and women gather on to survey the floor and what it has to offer. The eighties soundtrack is great for a nostalgic dance with your mates but if this place is all that is left in the search for love and romance then a visit by anyone coupled up would really make one appreciate their partner that little bit more than usual.

The décor is dark, gaudy and tacky but doesn't get much of a chance to make an impact as the place fills up quickly and the floor gets stickier with spilled fatfrogs and alco-pops, as you wander around under the stares of endless pairs of hungry eyes. Club Nassau is generally accepted as being one of the last places in town that hosts a slowset, they actually do three, and round the night off on one, almost. More surprising though is the fact that after the final Simply Red song is heard they actually play Amhrán na bhFiann. Not only is this one of the last places to get a slowset in, so too is it surely the last club that feels the need to give its country a standing ovation.

Words by Jade O'Callaghan

80s Club with legendary slow sets

Show Time: 23:00